Of the Catholic Church and for the Catholic Church

Because the Institute was born in the Catholic Church and is of the Catholic Church and for the Catholic Church, the members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word are formed for the Church.

From this it follows that a religious of the Incarnate Word “recognizes in the Supreme Pontiff the first and supreme authority and professes not only obedience, but also fidelity, filial submission, adherence and availability for the service of the universal Church” [1] . He is humbled at the feet of the Church [2] and does not want anyone to surpass him “in obsequiousness and love for the Pope and the Bishops, whom the Holy Spirit has placed to govern the Church of God” [3] .

In this sense, our Constitutions determine – how could it be otherwise – that our specific goal of the evangelization of culture must be achieved “in accordance with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church” [4] . And from here emanates this element attached to the non-negotiable charism that is “docility to the living Magisterium of the Church of all times” [5] . Well, we search in the treasury of the Magisterium of the Church for the solidity, purity and close norm of faith that the sublime task of evangelizing requires.

Accordingly, we consider it essential that our religious be nourished by the words of faith and good doctrine [6] , mainly by “loving knowledge and prayerful familiarity with the Word of God” [7] through which they will acquire “ holy familiarity with the Word made flesh” [8] and that they be formed in the “strictest fidelity to the supreme Magisterium of the Church of all times” [9] , solidly instructed in a sound theology – which “comes from the faith and tries to lead to faith” [10] – built on “a deep knowledge of the philosophy of being” [11] .

We are convinced that a true evangelization of culture cannot be achieved −and not even conceived− without fidelity to the Magisterium of Peter and to the Bishops united to him, all of which is demonstrated in the innumerable citations of magisterial texts in their own right. . Since the “Magisterium is not something extrinsic to the Christian truth nor something superimposed on faith; rather, it is something that is born from the economy of faith itself, since the Magisterium, in its service to the Word of God, is an institution positively willed by Christ as a constitutive element of the Church” [12] .

Notes:

[1] Constitutions, 271.

[2] Constitutions, 76.

[3] Ibid.; op. cit. San Luis Orione, Letter on obedience to the religious of the Little Work of Divine Providence, Epiphany of 1935, Letters from Don Orione, Ed. Pío XII, Mar del Plata 1952.

[4] Cf. Constitutions, 5.

[5] Notes V General Chapter, 4.

[6] 1Tm 4, 6.

[7] Directory of Intellectual Training, 41.

[8] Constitutions, 231.

[9] Constitutions, 222.

[10] Directory of Intellectual Training, 44.

[11] Constitutions , 227.

[12] Directory of Intellectual Training , 43; op. cit. Donum veritatis , Instruction on the ecclesial vocation of the theologian, 14.

[13] Constitutions , 27.

[14] Directory of Consecrated Life , 24.

[15] Cf. ibidem.

[16] Directory of Consecrated Life , 25

[17] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life , 25.

[18] Cf. Directory of Intellectual Formation , 2; op. cit. cf. Dignitatis Humanae , 14.

[19] Cf. Constitutions , 265.

[20] Saint John Paul II, Address to the International Council of the Teams of Our Lady , September 17, 1979.

[21] Directory of Major Seminaries , 340.